Tuesday, October 20, 2009

hot Crow

Okay, I borrowed cousin Fred's sailor suit and I'm heading off to make a few visits. Cuba is nice this time of year. Before I go I thought I should tell you about my friend Chris Hedges who has a few things of interest to say about the climate change crisis your government would prefer you not notice.

In case you don't have time to read the article (not long and well worth a few minutes) there's one paragraph to remember which I'll change just a little. He does a very enjoyable rant:

"You can cut our consumption of fossil fuels. You can use less water. You can banish plastic bags. You can install compact fluorescent light bulbs. You can compost in your backyard. But unless you dismantle the corporate state, all those actions will be just as ineffective as the Ghost Dance shirts donned by native American warriors to protect themselves from the bullets of white soldiers at Wounded Knee."

It's not your fault, people. I'm thinking there might be another world not too far from this one where human industry never went high tech. I'm off to the Bermuda Triangle to see if I can find it and if I do I'll be sure to come back and bring you the map.

i read the matt taibbi article you linked to me. it is an interesting perspective. and i agree, the peace prize isn't always given to those who work a lifetime towards ending war or hunger or oppression. but it is given to those who offer the world the HOPE of peace. that is why gorbachev and arafat won the prize when they did. those came at historical times when the eastern bloc was 'opening up' to the west, and when a peace agreement between the israelis and palestinians seemed possible. or at least plausible, however sad that sounds in retrospect.

dr. zaius - I used to ride a truncated dodecahedron but one of the wheels fell off and I kept falling over.

sera - It was the Henry Kissinger one that really stuck in my throat all those years ago and first made me wonder about the politics behind the prize. Did you know Matt Taibbi left the US right out of college and moved to Uzbekistan where he was thrown out for being subversive? Then he went to Mongolia and played on their national basketball team. After that he spent ten years in Russia where he started a satirical ex-pat newspaper. He returned to the US in 2004 and followed John Kerry while wearing a gorilla suit. He's much braver, crazier and outspoken than I could ever imagine being and sometimes he takes things too far (as did Hunter Thompson) but we do need to hear the essential truth of what he's saying. There aren't enough honest muckrakers in positions to be heard and there are those in positions of authority who require prodding about yet to be kept promises.

Hello Crow... I've been back here a few times. I wanted to comment earlier, but had to collect my thoughts. You know, we four legged types are the problem. We started long ago in olden times when industrialization took hold. We hammered molten iron into steel tools and started making things and never stopped digging inn the ground and taking things out of it.

When the corporations were allowed to flourish, pretty much simply because those that started them were rich and the poorer people could do nothing to stop them if they wanted to stay eating regular meals, things really went down hill. Now, just regular folks, people like me, I think, are living this way and seem to be trapped in this society and this life style.I wish often that I could just get a small studio apartment in the city and live so much more simply. No car, no TV, no phone even, and certainly not much electricity. It's a dream of mine, to live simply. Even when I thought I was making a lesser environmental footprint, I retraced my steps and found that I used just as much "fuel", (of every kind), than before, and was part of the overall problem.Thanks for offering to find a place where we could start over and after admitting we can do better, and actually start to live like we mean it, we can flourish without the corporations killing the environment. One sack of beans, one sack of flour, a little bacon grease and water. I'd like to give it a try, even though it sounds so unrealistic.

spadoman - I guess all we can do is accept the suchness of humanity as it is. Yes, it's the rich and powerful who have arranged for so much damage being done both to the poor of our species and the natural world and compassion for their grasping qualities is all we can offer. Sometimes I think the best we can do when there's no particular action to take is to simply bear witness. We are the senses of God after all is said and done. Life is precious wherever it arises and I'm hoping Crow finds what he's looking for - for all our sakes. I have no problem with unrealistic expectations since the very fact of our having been born in the first place was an unrealistic one. Be at peace, my friend.

...but could a triangle (or a truncated dodecahedron... with or without wheels) contain all these subversive composters and pot bangers peacefully? .... i guess it's worth a try. gotta be an improvement on the current situation.